Autograph letter by the New Zealand scientist George Malcolm Thomson, addressed to the French zoologist Alphonse Milne-Edwards. Thomson (1848-1933) was a New Zealand scientist, teacher, educationalist, and politician. He was born in Calcutta, India, and grew up in Scotland before emigrating to New Zealand at the age of 20. Before emigrating, he briefly studied chemistry and botany at the University of Edinburgh. Later in life, as a teacher and scientist in New Zealand, he had a great interest in these and other natural historical subjects.
The addressee of the present letter is Alphonse Milne-Edwards (1835-1900), a French zoologist and naturalist and the son of the renowned French zoologist Henri Milne-Edwards. After obtaining a medical degree in 1859, Alphonse started out as the assistant to his father at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. Later in life, he became the director of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle. In his studies, Milne-Edwards mainly focussed on fossil birds and deep-sea exploration, but he wrote numerous works on broader ornithological and other natural historical subjects.
In the present letter, Thomson profusely thanks Milne-Edwards for forwarding several papers related to their shared interest in crustaceans, as they were both carcinologists. Thomson references two other French natural scientists and their works: Henri Filhol (1843-1902) and (Charles) Émile Blanchard (1819-1900).


Transcription:
[p. 1]
High School, Dunedin, N.Z.
30th Augt. 1882.

Sir,
I beg to thank you heartily for
your kindness in so promptly replying
to my requests of 12th and 28th April.
Your letter of 20th June, accompanied
by the numbers of 'Comptes rendus', containing
M. Blanchard's paper together with your
observations on it, and M. Filhol's paper
on Campbell Island, reached me safely
on 15th [Iuet?]. I hope to republish a
translation of these papers in succeeding
numbers of the journal.
I had the pleasure of seeing
Dr. Filhol when he was here in my

[p. 2]
father's house, and of handing him a
considerable collection of Crustacea and
of dried plants. He then promised to
make me an exchange when he returned
to France, but no doubt he had more
promises of the kind to fulfil than he
could manage.
I take the liberty of forwarding
a few papers which I have from time
to time read, and shall feel honoured
to receive from you at any time com-
munications relating to New Zealand.
Believe me to remain,
Your's faithfully,
Geo. M. Thomson.

Prof A. Milne Edwards
Paris.
With some additional manuscript annotations on the first page in red ink and pencil and a small heart with an "H" in its centre in red ink in the bottom right corner of p. [2]. With some faint folding lines. Overall in very good condition. For Thomson: Speirs, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/2t40/thomson-george-malcolm; for the paper: https://paper.naa.gov.au/paper/659.